The invention relates to a combined stairway and lift apparatus, comprising a stairway which, by a lifting means, can be raised and lowered at least at one end, and which is designed so that the steps all the time are horizontal during the raising or lowering movement, the stairway in a horizontal position forming a planar surface flush with a raisable and lowerable platform.
An apparatus of the above-mentioned type is known from SE laying-open print No. 462 335. This known apparatus consists of an elevator portion and a stairway portion connected thereto, wherein the elevator portion comprises an elevator platform which is raisable and lowerable between at least two levels, and wherein the stairway portion is connected to the elevator portion in such a manner that the stairway portion automatically follows the movements of the elevator portion, so that the stairway portion in a lowered position forms a planar surface on which a load can be run onto the elevator platform. The apparatus may be used as a stairway and/or a lift between stories in a house, as a loading platform with side stairway at a loading quay, as a freight elevator in storage premises, etc. The construction of the apparatus implies, however, substantial restrictions with respect to fields of use. Among other things, it cannot be adapted for use as, e.g., a wheelchair lift in public means of transportation, such as buses, railway cars, etc., with a varying entering height.
In the recent time, there has been carried out some research activity with respect to the possibilities of arranging the conditions for handicapped persons in public means of transportation. In this connection, it has become clear that today there do not exist sufficiently good and quick solutions for lifts which can be recommended for short-distance traffic with buses or the like. In public means of transportation for short-distance traffic, there must be made heavy demands on regularity, and it will then not be of current interest to install lifts which become too time-consuming and make too heavy demands on drivers/conductors.
A combined stairway and lift apparatus for public means of transportation should also have a flexible construction which, in operation, can be adapted to varying operating conditions, especially with regard to varying entering height. Thus, the apparatus should be able to be adapted to city buses and trams with a very low entering height, and further to buses, trams, railway cars, etc., having a relatively high entering height, and, moreover, to varying platform heights in connection with railway cars.
Transport of handicapped persons, and especially wheelchair users, is a big problem also in airplanes, ships, and ferries. For example, the operation of bringing a passenger which is a wheelchair user on board an airplane, implies a physically great load on the personnel, and in addition it is degrading for the passenger. In practice, it often takes place in the manner that the wheelchair user has to appear at the air terminal a long time before the other passengers, in order then to be placed in another wheelchair. He or she is then carried up the aircraft stairway by two persons of the staff, in order thereafter to be lifted over into a usual chair.
When using a combined stairway and lift apparatus as a gangway in seagoing vessels, there is, at the starting point, also a need to be able to vary the height of the apparatus because of the tide.
Thus, there is a need for a combined stairway and lift apparatus which is suitable for solving the above-mentioned problems in different fields of transportation.
There is also a need for an improved, combined stairway and lift apparatus which is suitable for use by wheelchair users in buildings, indoor as well as outdoor. The usual alternative today in connection with low stairways is a fixed ramp, indoor as well as outdoor. These are very bulky because of the severe demands to a limited upward gradient, and in many cases are not considered as an acceptable solution. This applies, e.g., in churches where, as a rule, there are several steps from the church room to the altar, but where the authorities for aesthetic reasons do not accept a permanent ramp. In many cases a ramp neither is of any interest in private residences, and a scissors-type lift may also be an expensive and space-demanding solution.